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Urine color can now be tested with a new app that has been recently launched on the market. The app can test the presence of up to 10 markers, which are related to 25 diseases. You will simply use the camera of your smartphone to take pictures of the chemical strips, after dipping them in samples of your urine.

The app compares it with a map and in several seconds it offers information on the levels of glucose, protein, bilirubin, ketones, leukocytes and five more parameters. The results are offered in an easy to understand format, so anyone can understand them.

The Indian company that has created the application states that their product is going to be a great help for people suffering from diabetes, kidney problems, bladder and liver. The app will also offer precious info related to a possible urinary infection.

The application is tested right now in several hospitals from Mumbai, and if everything goes well, it is soon going to be available for iPhones.

A new research has proved, without doubt, that animals help kids with autism interact a lot better with other people. The main conclusion is that kids are more involved socially when an animal is present in the room.

The study has been conducted at the University of Queensland, Australia, and the kids that participated were between 5 and 13 years old. Their interaction with adults was analyzed while two guinea pigs were present in the room, and then when the small pigs were replaced with simple toys.

The conclusion was very clear: when animals were present, kids talked more and looked at the other persons’ faces. At the same time, they frown less, whine less and cry less while the animals were present. Specialists hope that due to the presence of an animal, kids with autism could interact better with teachers, therapists and adults.

The flu virus is shown to be less infectious when humidity, in a room, is above 40%. According to Louis Kraml, CEO at Bingham Memorial Hospital, when the air is more humid, the influenza virus gets weaker. The research has demonstrated that one hour after they have been released in a room with 23% humidity, about 75% of the viruses kept their infectious capacity. When the experiment was repeated in a room where humidity was around 40%, only 14% of the viruses kept their infectious capacity. As a conclusion, in rooms where humidity is higher than 40%, viruses lose their strength. More information can be found on the Louis Kraml Youtube Channel.

The venom from the vipers contains several anticoagulants and coagulants, and this could be a valuable resource in treating human diseases. The vipers that are responsible for the majority of the attacks on humans can be recognized after the specific sound they make when they feel threatened.

The venom can cause blood clotting, hemorrhage, renal problems and even strokes. Iranian specialists have discovered that despite the fact that snakes are very dangerous, their venom can be used to treat several medical conditions.

People all over the world are more and more interested in buying organic food. Despite all of this, say the specialists, even if you buy organic food, it can get contaminated with phthalates and bisphenol A. These are synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals, and studies have shown the link between the exposure to them and abnormalities in the male reproductive system.

The kids that were exposed to these substances had hyperactivity, depression and anxiety. Specialists say that a kid aged between 3 and 6 is exposed to about 2,000 milligrams of phthalates and bisphenol A each day.

Good news from Louis Kraml: medicines for high blood pressure have been found to have the ability to control the development of dementia and Alzheimer diseases. In particular, the so-called beta blockers, a type of high blood medicines, may have the ability to protect their users from dementia.

This is the finding of the study presented at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. According to mayoclinic.com, examples of beta blockers are propanolol, nebivolol, nadolol, metoprolol, bisoprolol, atenolol and acebutolol.

The study found that blood pressure medicines are beneficial and cause few changes in the brain, with beta blockers producing the least number of changes that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers noted that the patients, no matter what type of blood pressure medicines they are taking, benefit from taking their medication on a regular basis.

The benefits include low levels of micro infarcts, which are the conditions that arise from the inability of blood to reach the remote areas of the brain. Beta blocker users were also found to have brains with lesser brain-size shrinkage, according to Dr. Lon White, author of the report.

White added that brain shrinking is a symptom of Alzheimer’s, a symptom that gets worse as the disease gets worse. He said that these findings are exciting because beta blocker medicines are usually prescribed for high blood pressure patients.

According to Louis Kraml, the results of the study are also very important when we take into account the constantly increasing population worldwide. With the projected increase in population, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease will commensurately increase in the future, White said.

1. During a recent press conference, Louis Kraml, CEO at Bingham Memorial Hospital, announced that the medical institution that he has been leading since 2007 was chosen to be the recipient of the Medicare Rural Flexibility Grant. This is another proof which shows clearly that the hospital has expanded its reach and the medical services provided to the local area residents are of the highest quality. Mr. Kraml has stated in an interview that he and his staff are very proud to have been awarded this grant.

Louis Kraml

“The money”, said Louis Kraml, “will be used to build a medical system that can serve as a model for other hospitals, thus helping improve patient outcomes throughout the entire U.S. Bingham Memorial, which is also a Critical Access Hospital, will use the $19,818 grant to make significant changes that really matter.” According to Louis Kraml, “we want to use the money to build a powerful, efficient, and yet easy to follow model for all the other rural hospitals around the country, for the benefit of all the Americans”.

2. Mr. Kraml has stated many times that having highly trained medical personnel can make Bingham Memorial Hospital even better. This is one of the main reasons why Louis Kraml is now looking for professionals that are willing to come and help the people of Blackfoot, Idaho.

The recruiting campaign is directed at the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. The name of the recruiting program is “Play Where You Work”; it has the goal of attracting highly trained doctors that appreciate not only the opportunity of working with modern medical equipment in a great hospital, but also the wonderful natural environment around their offices. Due to its low cost of living and the culture of physician independence, Idaho was recently ranked as the best place to be a doctor in the U.S.A.

3. In a recent interview, Louis Kraml has said that he is very proud of the fact that Bingham Memorial Hospital has been chosen by Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences to be their single Idaho Medical School. “The reasons for this choice”, said Mr. Kraml, “were not only the high hospital standards, but also by its proven dedication to serving the residents of Idaho.”

Pacific Northwest University is a private medical school located in Washington. The school is dedicated to training doctors that will serve the rural population. Mr. Louis Kraml considers this to be a great honor for Bingham Memorial and for the medical team that he is leading.

4. Louis Kraml is announcing the launch of a new array of qualified medical services for people that suffer from spine problems. The Spine Center at Bingham Memorial Hospital is now offering all these services: acupuncture, massage, ultrasound stimulators, superficial injections, epidural steroid injections and selective Nerve Root Blocks. Surgery is considered only when everything else has showed to be useless.

5. Among the many initiatives of the highly trained team of doctors at Bingham Memorial Hospital, there is a new one that aims to serve the children in the community. Louis Kraml is dedicated to offering the best medical services possible to every child in the region.

Bingham Memorial now offers free screenings for all infants and toddlers in Eastern Idaho twice a year. According to Mr. Kraml, this initiative will help many residents benefit from medical services that they would not be able to benefit from under normal conditions. The free screenings are made possible due to a partnership with Shriner’s Screening Clinic, helping parents find out if their children have any medical issues that need to be addressed before they get serious.

6. People that suffer from foot pain have received qualified help during the educational seminars that were organized at Bingham Memorial Hospital at the initiative of Louis Kraml, CEO of the hospital. It is well known that foot pain can severely impact one’s daily activities, even the simple things like walking, for example.

1. People that have kids younger than five years old and want a free fluoride varnish dental treatment for them can go to McCall, Idaho.

It is a well known fact that fluoride is of great help when it comes to preventing cavities in young patients. This initiative targets mostly kids that do not have a personal dentist; this means that the kids that don’t benefit from a dental insurance plan are welcomed to the treatment. The treatment is complimentary, but the parents should enlist the name of their kids.

2. Flu has taken the life of 21 persons, including 2 kids, in Idaho. The flu season has started on the first of October, 2012 and since then many people in the region have suffered from it. Flu is a serious condition that can take lives, even the lives of kids.

The 19 adult patients that died were older than 50; many doctors recommend that the people suffering from various medical conditions should get flu shots. Flu can cause several complications of pre existing medical conditions. For example, flu can be very bad for pregnant women or persons with diabetes and heart disease. Among the flu symptoms there are: fever above 100 degrees Fahrenheit / 37.8 degrees Celsius, trouble breathing, dizziness, confusion, dehydration, vomiting, being sleepy and irritable.

3. About one fifth of the houses in Idaho contain radon, a gas that is the second cause of lung cancer in the U.S., right after smoking. Radon was found in many of the Idaho counties, and actually there are some counties where more than half of the existing houses registered high levels of radon.

This is a radioactive gas that can be found in the soil; it has no smell, taste or color and it is known to determine the death of over 20,000 persons in the U.S. every year. Radon accumulates in larger quantities during winter, when many people keep the windows and doors closed, thus allowing the gas to remain inside the walls of the house. The gas can be found in larger quantities in the basement and the ground floor rooms of the houses.

4. As spring is making itself more and more visible, farmers have also started to replenish the stock of chicks and ducklings. More than that, there are even parents that have thought about getting their kids such a present for Easter. But the Public Health and Agriculture authorities encourage people to be very careful and handle wisely the small birds, due to the high risk of salmonella, which may cause infections.

As more and more people have started to raise chickens and ducks in urban areas, they should be correctly informed concerning the possible risks and the preventative measures that should be taken. They should be taught to wash their hands on a regular basis, never allow the birds to get in the house, as well as clean all the potentially contaminated areas often.

5. Residents of SW Boise attended a class where they were taught how to prevent debilitating falls that can happen at senior age, a fact that can leave them incapable of moving on their own. Simple exercises have been practiced, and they proved to be helpful the seniors’ strength, balance, mobility and endurance.

The sun has always been a real blessing for life on Earth, and all over the world people try to find ways to use the solar energy in diverse ways that will help us improve our lives.

Back in time people learned to use mirrors and ignite a fire using the rays of the sun. Ancient history tales told us about the creative Archimedes, who used bronze shields to set enemy ships on fire by concentrating the solar energy. Nowadays, after the people have learned to use the water, the wind and coal to make energy, scientists all over the world are still trying to find ways in which they can transform the solar energy into electricity with a much greater efficiency.

A group of scientists from The Department of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials have come up with a brilliant idea that would transform the solar energy into electricity using metals. It is a large research effort that seems to be different from all other similar projects. The scientists have developed devices that can convert the sun energy into electricity by using semiconductors, which are rich in electrons on one side only. The light particles excite the electrons and as a result, these charged particles are created and they can then be captured and used to light up bulbs, for example.

It is not all good news, though. Many nations of the world are worried because of the global warming, and many countries have stated their commitment to fight against global warming, estimated to be about two Celsius degrees higher in comparison to the pre industrial period.

In fact, new studies published by Science Magazine have demonstrated that a raise with only 1.5 degrees of the global temperature has a huge impact on life on our planet. Not only that, but scientists have noticed that in Siberia’s caves, the permafrost begins to melt if the temperature rises with only 1.5 degrees Celsius. If this is really going to happen, experts talk about an impact similar to the release of a 1,000 giga tones bomb.

The permafrost covers about 24 percent of the land surface of the Nordic hemisphere, and if this area begins to melt, the sunlight and the bacteria would have a big impact on the previously frozen plant components. This would mean, in the end, that carbon and methane are released in the air in huge quantities. At this moment there isn’t any viable solution that would allow us to limit the raise in temperature that takes place in the entire world.

The raise in global temperature has been recently linked to the decreased work capacity that people have. In fact, not just the heat affects us, but the high humidity as well. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have concluded that due to the climate change, life in different regions on Earth will be completely changed.

The most pessimistic estimations say that around the year 2050, due to the association of high temperatures and high levels of humidity in the air, about 80 percent of the work capacity of people will decrease, especially during the hot summer months, every year. The impact would actually be twice as big as what we are facing today.

When the levels of humidity are high, people can find it very difficult to cool their bodies; perspiration is affected and heat related illnesses will occur. The specialists estimate that over a period of fifty years, if people do not invent new modalities to cool the air and keep the temperature values low, the average Earth temperature would be eleven degrees Fahrenheit higher in comparison with what it was in the preindustrial period.

1. Several people have decided to get their heads shaved in order to help cancer research in Boise, Idaho. The participants have asked for money from their friends and family members, in exchange for the privilege to see them go bald. The money gathered was donated to a children’s cancer research fund. The event is organized every year.

2. A new study has showed that money can buy willpower indeed. People on a diet could win or lose 20 dollars a month if they enrolled in a program created to help them lose pounds. The program was conducted at Mayo Clinic and was the longest to demonstrate that money given as incentives had a great power making people lose weight. On the other hand, people had to pay money if they could not lose weight.

Cancer Research Initiative

3. After a woman turns 50, losing weight gets more and more difficult. One explanation is the hormone change in her body: the cortisol level increases and this makes the body store more fat on thighs and stomach.

Specialists have noticed that once a woman gets older, the muscle mass is declining, and muscles are replaced by fat. The good news is that doctors can create personalized diets for each woman and if seriously kept, these diets can help a lot.

4. Older people are not at all helped by the flu shot that has been used this year; only 9 percent of the old people state that the flu shot has helped them. As a result, many older people have been hospitalized with flu this year.

5. A new Vein Center in Idaho is presenting the next generation of medical services offered to patients with swollen veins. Half of all Americans over 50 and close to two thirds of women over 60 have this problem. The varicose veins are sometimes visible in the teenage years as well.

This is a condition that is genetically transmitted from generation to generation, so if your mother had this medical problem, it is very possible that you are going to have it as well. The physical activity is very helpful to prevent or postpone the start of the problems. It is a progressive condition that gets worse if not treated properly.

6. Cinnamon has proved to be of great help once again, and specialists recommend incorporating it in our diets on a regular basis. It prevents and combats diabetes, as it behaves in the organism like an insulin substitute for persons diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

This is a recent result of a study conducted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University. Since cinnamon is capable of potentiating the insulin in the body, the conclusion is that it has the potential to prevent and overcome diseases like diabetes.

7. Due to the Daylight Saving Time, people lose one hour of sleep and this is very dangerous for those that drive a car in the morning. The risk is to get sleepy while driving, says the National Transportation Safety Board.

March 3-10 was elected to be the week of National Sleep Awareness Week, which was planned as an event that highlights tragedies that are caused by sleep loss. Sleep deprivation is strongly linked to the mistakes drivers make when driving their cars.